Jovial legislative leaders, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, left; Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, center; and Assembly Minority Leader Mike Villines, R-Clovis, talk with reporters after announcing at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., they had reached an agreement reached to ease the overcrowding in California prisons, Wednesday, April 25, 2007. Legislative leaders met for almost an hour before announcing the agreement that includes adding beds at state prisons and county jails, as well as improving rehabilitation programs to help inmates transition back to society. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

2007-04-27 04:00:00 PDT Sacramento -- With no public hearing and minimal debate, California lawmakers on Thursday approved what one corrections expert called the biggest prison expansion plan in American history.

Hailed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders as another example of bipartisan goodwill in Sacramento, the $7.4 billion prison construction proposal was approved 70-0 by the Assembly Thursday morning, after about 20 minutes of discussion, and the state Senate approved the legislation a few hours later on a 27-11 vote.

The votes came less than 24 hours after legislative leaders announced the proposal. They illustrated both the willingness of inexperienced lawmakers to defer to legislative leaders on a difficult political issue and the fear leaders had in allowing opponents -- most notably the politically powerful prison guards union -- enough time to mount a campaign against the proposal, according to Capitol observers.

The bill that was approved had been a measure changing the composition of the state Transportation Commission until it was rewritten overnight into a 31-page measure that could add 53,000 prison and jail beds, and, proponents argued, mark a major change in direction for state prison policy toward rehabilitating inmates.

"The process was terrible," said Bob Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles. "The question is why did this need to happen so quickly? What, of course, it did was stymie the prison guards from mounting a campaign against it."

The union sent a letter to lawmakers opposing the proposal, saying that a part of the plan to ship 8,000 inmates to out-of-state prisons against their will would lead to violence in prisons and that the plan did not address fundamental flaws in the state's criminal justice system. The union, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, had members in the Capitol Thursday morning to lobby legislators, but suffered a rare setback.

While Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders characterized their deal as adding both badly needed capacity to the overcrowded prison system and important new requirements for providing rehabilitation programs for inmates, it was attacked both by good-government watchdogs and some lawmakers for the haste and secrecy surrounding the process.

Typically, bills must be approved by multiple committees in both the Senate and Assembly before being voted on by the full legislative bodies, although last-minute legislation is not uncommon.

Supporters noted that lawmakers have been debating how to deal with prison overcrowding for more than a year, holding countless hearings on the issue. Staff of the four legislative leaders and the governor have been working on a deal for months.

"If anyone believes this is a new issue, you've been sleeping through class," said Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland.

Perata and other Democrats who supported the plan Thursday also noted that federal judges were poised this summer to consider putting a population cap on the overcrowded prison system, which could have led to the early release of inmates. Schwarzenegger must submit a report to U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson by mid-May describing the administration's progress on addressing overcrowding.

With several senators scheduled to make a trip next week to Washington, D.C., pressure was on to get a deal done this week so that the governor could prepare his report to Henderson by citing a deal with lawmakers.

The proposal, which Schwarzenegger is expected to sign as soon as next week, will spend $7.4 billion in two phases to build a maximum of 40,000 new beds for state inmates and add 13,000 new slots in county jails.

The money will come from lease-revenue bonds, which do not require voter approval.

Democrats, who had stressed the need to improve and increase programs for inmates such as drug treatment and job training, characterized the plan as a profound shift in the duties of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The spending will be done in two phases, and the second phase will only occur if the department can meet several new requirements, including that it has placed 4,000 inmates into drug treatment programs, increased the number of inmates in educational or vocational programs by 10 percent and created new facilities designed to help parolees with mental illnesses stay crime-free.

"I really believe this is prison reform," said Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, arguing that the new policies will create a "very humane rehabilitation strategy for inmates."

Others disagreed.

"It's a prop," said state Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, who voted against the measure and suggested Democrats were too scared of the political ramifications of reducing the prison population to make bold change.

"The image of Willie Horton is seared into everyone's brains," she complained, referring to a Massachusetts inmate who raped and robbed a woman while on prison furlough. Many political experts say the Horton controversy severely damaged Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis' presidential bid in 1988.

Joan Petersilia, a UC Irvine criminologist who studies prison and parole policies, said she believed the proposal approved Thursday was the largest corrections expansion in the country's history, in both number of beds and cost.

"You can sugarcoat it any way you want, but it is still a prison-building package," she said

Petersilia and others -- including the Little Hoover Commission and a commission chaired by former Gov. George Deukmejian -- argue that sentencing policies should be redone because they provide no incentives for inmates to enter rehabilitative programming and no provisions for corrections experts to decide when an inmate should be released. Parole policies have also been attacked by critics for sending too many parolees back to prison for short terms, which overcrowd the system.

The proposal does not address sentencing or parole reforms.

States around the country -- including Texas and Alabama -- have made policy changes to reduce the prison population instead of building costly new facilities, Petersilia said.

"California is the only state heading in this direction," she said, calling Thursday a "very sad day."